Quan Minglong’s words caught everyone’s attention.
A smile appeared on She Yu’s face. "I feel really happy to meet everyone."
The smile on her face was genuine and her gorgeous eyes were glittering. Her absolutely ravishing face was brimming with sincerity, making everyone believed that she meant her words without the slightest doubt.
However, at this point of time, she was actually placing all her attention on the blood plum blossom on her arm. She could clearly feel the petals of the blood plum blossom extending outwards. The petals were already protruding halfway out of her arm. Once the plum blossom was fully protruded from her skin, it would fall off her arm.
No one knew how excited she was deep down.
Once the plum blossom fell off, it would be an exceptional priceless treasure in the whole of Nation of God. It would be a supreme elixir that everyone yearned for.
Once she swallowed the plum blossom, she could effortlessly rise through the premier ranks in the Nation of God.
Right now, what she needed to do the most was not to attract any attention to herself. For any blood elementalist, this plum blossom was an irreplaceable priceless treasure that could directly raise his or her base level significantly.
If the High Priest was to know of its existence, even he himself would covet after it.
In the past, she used to despise and disdain people looking at her with such burning envy. However, at this moment, she was extremely pleased by these gazes.
Was there better cover than hiding among these people? If those old foxes were around, she would have let the cat of the bag. The rest of the diplomatic mission were at least twenty metres away from her, it would be impossible for them to sense it.
The smile on her face became increasingly alluring
Quan Minglong could not help but feel overjoyed and smiled, "It seems that Miss She Yu gets along with us quite well."
At this point of time, even fools could tell that Quan Minglong was very interested in She Yu.
"Has anyone realized that when Miss She Yu and Mr Quan stand together, her radiating beauty and his imposing dignity complement each other really well? Sigh, there’s really too much pressure standing beside these two individuals. It’s okay if we lose out to them in terms of capabilities. However, right now, even our looks lose out to them. Someone please help us!"
A person in the crowd shook his head and sighed, putting on a self-pity look on his face.
Quan Minglong was delight as an aloof smile appeared on his face. Why didn’t he find this guy so pleasing to the eye in the past?
"Can we even be compared to Brother Minglong? He is the first young master of the Quan family!"
The surrounding people started flooding the Quan Minglong with flatters. The Quan family was powerful and influential. As the first young master of the Quan family, Quan Minglong was always highly flattered wherever he went.
Quan Minglong was born in a family of merchants. His father had enforced strict discipline on him since he was young, and as such, he was not tainted by bad business ethics. His father also knew that if one did not have any fighting capabilities, he or she would not survive and excel in an era of killing and bloodshed. Since the day Quan Minglong was born, he had displayed extraordinary talents and had become the main focus of the Quan family to nurture and groom.
As a child, Quan Minglong trained diligently everyday. Even though Quan family was well-known for its extravagance, Quan Minglong was not fond of indulging himself in such habit.
Usually, those who wanted to bootlick Quan Minglong to win his favor were not able to succeed as Quan Minglong did not endorse such behaviour. However, today Quan Minglong seemed to be a changed man. Apparently, he was very happy and was beaming with joy. Thus, everyone started to flood him with flatters.
She Yu, who had been smiling brightly on the surface, suddenly felt a shiver went down her spine. The blood plum blossom that was emerging from her arm had stopped in its tracks!
What happened?
Before she could find out what had happened, the blood plum blossom began to sink back into her arm.
She became anxious instantly.
What was going on? What exactly had happened?
The blood plum blossom did not hear the the cries in her heart and continued to sink back into her arm. The speed at which it was sinking was much faster than usual as well.
She Yu had never panicked like this before. The exceptional priceless treasure that she was about to get her hands on was disappearing right under her nose. Her mind went into a blank and she was stunned.
Even though she was surrounded by a clamorous crowd now, like a bright moon that was surrounded by a myriad of stars, she felt as if she was in a boundless wilderness, lonely and isolated. The feeling of losing something she just obtained felt so terrible. The turn of events was so devastating that she thought how ridiculous it was for her to feel so happy and excited just now.
Disappointment engulfed her like a black hole, leaving her isolated and helpless.
Quan Minglong noticed the smile on She Yu’s face had disappeared and she looked slightly pale. He was preparing to ask her what had happened.
"In a few months’ time, Brother Minglong is going to become Master Dai’s disciple. Come on, come on, let us congratulate Brother Minglong beforehand."
She Yu’s body turned cold. The blood plum blossom had completely sunk back into her arm. Her arm became smooth once again and her face had turned deathly white. She was being played by fate.
She felt extremely terrible.
It just so happened that she heard someone was talking about congratulating Quan Minglong and her patience in putting up with everyone collapsed instantly. She coldly snorted,
"Disciple-in-name? If my memory serves me right, Duanmu Huanghun is the last official disciple of Dai Gang?"
A dead silence swept across her surroundings. Everyone widened their eyes and stared shockingly at She Yu.
Quan Minglong’s face turned ashen.
At this moment, She Yu also realized she had said something wrong. However, she was too lazy to explain as she did not care about these people at all.
With a cold and indifferent look on her face, she bowed and bade everyone farewell, "I’m sorry, I feel unwell and I have to leave in advance."
After finishing her sentence, She Yu turned and left the place without bothering about anyone.
A valley in the wild.
Ai Hui woke up and opened his eyes unhurriedly. At the instance when he opened his eyes, he was stunned. There were numerous glowing wisps floating before his eyes, resembling a veil of mist.
These glowing wisps were elemental energy.
Traces of wood elemental energy were emitting from the plants and trees around him. The closer one got to the ground, the stronger the earth elemental energy he or she could feel. In the midst of the earth elemental energy, one could also see speckles of silvery light. Those were the metal elemental energy from the ore veins under the ground. The water elemental energy in the sky was flowing with the moving clouds. Occasionally, one could see a few faint traces of water elemental energy lingering in the valley. The naked boulders that made up the mountain peak was emitting a red glow. That was the fire elemental energy. That must be the fire elemental energy that was left over from the lava that formed the boulders in the ancient past.
The morning sunshine scattered fire elemental energy all over the valley. The fire elemental energy was faint but its range was extremely wide. It also contained a trace of wood elemental energy.
The whole world was vivid, animated and full of vitality.
Elemental externalization!
He had attained elemental externalization!
Ai Hui was overjoyed. A wide grin spread across his face. Eventually, he was grinning foolishly to himself.
Then, he suddenly remembered that the blood plum blossom almost killed him when he was about to achieve a breakthrough. How did he survive after that? Did the blood plum blossom spare his life? Ha, what a joke. One Thousand Yuan’s heart was extremely vicious, she only wanted to kill him, not spare him.
The bloodstains all over his body indicated how dangerous his condition was at the time when he was achieving his breakthrough. Everything was not a misperception.
He quickly took off his clothes and looked at his chest. The blood plum blossom was still there. Other than its color becoming slightly fainter, there were not much changes.
Slightly fainter?
Ai Hui was baffled. From his understanding towards things that were related to blood elementalists, the brighter the color of something was, the more dangerous it was. Why did the color of the blood plum blossom became fainter? What had happened?
Ai Hui examined his body and remained confused. He then thought of how the blood bandage had saved his life in the past. Could it be the blood bandage?
He took off the blood bandage and examined it. When he saw the blood eye on it, he immediately knew what was going on.
The blood eye had completely transformed.
The color and luster of the blood eye did not change but it gave Ai Hui a completely different feeling, an indescribable one. It was as if the blood eye was a living thing. Ai Hui could not help but take a closer a look at. His gaze gradually became blank and a surprise slowly crept upon his face. He stared blankly at the blood eye, motionless.
After an unknown amount of time, Ai Hui returned to his sense abruptly as a cold shiver went down his spine.
Astonishment flashed across his face.
The sunset in the distant dyed the entire valley in orange. The sunset glow was dazzling and golden-bright, extremely beautiful. The evening breeze was cool and refreshing, and yet, Ai Hui felt his body was doused in chilliness.
Just a moment ago, it was still early morning. Now, it was already sunset.
He did not seem to have any recollection of what happened between then and now. He did not even feel the passing of time at all.
An indescribable fear engulfed Ai Hui.
The blood bandage… the blood eye… it was indeed an extraordinary object!
In the past, he already knew that the blood bandage was an extraordinary object, but it was only at this moment that he realized that it was far more powerful than what he expected. Even though he had already attained elemental externalization, he still fell into its trap. The blood bandage was indeed an evil object.
Mistress never would have thought that her blood bandage was so powerful.
When Ai Hui thought of his mistress, his fear towards the blood bandage immediately reduced significantly. His gaze became much gentle as well. No matter what, the blood bandage had saved his life several times. So what if it was an evil object?
Ai Hui patted the blood bandage and said, "Don’t worry, I won’t lose you."
After the fright from the blood bandage, Ai Hui’s ecstasy over his attainment of elemental externalization had dampened a lot.
He thought about the spoils of war he looted from Shi Youguang. At that time, he was in a hurry to escape, hence, he did not really see and check what they exactly were.
Since he was free now, he might as well arrange and account for the spoils of war.
Shi Youguang had been a reputable expert for many years, he definitely had an immense amount of wealth. At least, he was not as poor as Ai Hui himself.
He took out the items one by one.
Initially, there was a bunch of earth elemental materials, presumably for sand puppets. There were also a few rare items that made Ai Hui’s eyes lit up. He had been thinking for quite long on giving Lou Lan’s body an upgrade. However, earth elemental materials were in high demand and those high-grade ones were extremely expensive.
Meteoric sand was an extremely dense and heavy material. It was a well-known heavy sand and had a special ability of breaking armor. The meteoric sand was produced in the depths of the thick sand sea in Yellow Sand Corner. This type of heavy sand were only flushed out of the ground by quicksand occasionally. They were very rare and could not be found on the market. They were usually used to make the offensive parts of sand puppets, such as their fists.
Soft sand, also widely know as dough sand, was a very unique type of sand. They behaved like dough, which shape could be easily changed. Using this type of sand to make a sand puppet, the sand puppet’s body could be pulled as long as noodles without breaking. Soft sand was produced using clay. Even though clay and sand were both earth elemental materials, they had completely different characteristics. Soft sand was usually produced at the border of sand sea and wasteland.
The other materials were of high grade as well. It was clear that Shi Youguang’s sand puppet was of high grade tool.
He was an expert that had been reputable for many years! Could he afford to be so petty with his money? How could he have the nerve to be petty with his money in the first place? What would other people say of him if he was to be so petty with his sand puppet? Would he dare to use his sand puppet if he was to be so petty with him? Would his sand puppet still be capable of protecting him? (Sarcastic tone)
Ai Hui was over the moon. Even though he had made a small name for himself after going through all kinds of battles during the last three years, this was the first time he made such bountiful gain.
As the proverbs in Avalon of Five Elements said,
A horse won’t get fat if it doesn’t secretly chomp on grass at night, a man won’t get rich if he doesn’t have a windfall!
If you ask me how melancholy I am now, I can tell you I feel like a poor man who is gifting his head away. [1]
When Ai Hui took out the last item, he was so excited that he jumped up from the ground.
Note:
[1] This is an altered version of a line from Li Yu’s poem in the Song Dynasty. Basically, this line means that it’s useless for one to kill a poor man as he or she will not be able to reap any benefit.